October 08, 2014, 14:57 UTC+3MOSCOWThe process will not begin this year, because construction of launch pad for the Soyuz rockets is the top priority, says an official of the Russian special construction agency Spetsstroi

MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. Builders will be unable to start construction work at the site of a future launch complex of the Angara space rockets at the Vostochny spaceport this year, an official of the Russian special construction agency Spetsstroi told ITAR-TASS in an interview.

Valentin Kochetkov, the chief of the Spetsstroi’s branch for the construction of space port’s facilities said the work to build the Angara rocket launch complex was scheduled to begin next year.

“It will not happen this year, because construction work at the first launch pad for the Soyuz rockets is the top priority,” Kochetkov said. According to his estimates four facilities at the space port worth 0.6 billion dollars worth are to be in place by June - the housing stock, the measurement equipment complex crucial for the first launch, an underground storage for rocket fuel and a waste recycling centre.

The program for creating the Vostochny spaceport is extended till 2025. A total workforce of 7,000-8,000 from eighteen regions of Russia is employed at the complex. A decision is about to be made to draw additional human resources to eliminate the lagging behind estimated at 30-55 days.

“We are in talks with the client - Roscosmos - over the question of including four more contracts in the schedule - those for creating a system of communication, an industrial construction base, a base for running the debris fallout area and a weather watching complex. This will cost an estimated 200,000 million dollars,” Kochetkov said.

“Angara is a new generation of rockets Russia is working on at the moment. All of the current rockets in use were designed back in the USSR. The Angara family consists of the light rocket Angara-1.2, (liftoff mass of 171 tonnes), medium rocket Angara-A3 (481 tonnes), and heavy rockets: Angara-A5 (liftoff mass of 773 tonnes, payload up to 24.5 tonnes) and Angara-A7 (1,113 tonnes, payload of up to 35 tonnes).

Russia’s future first entirely civil spaceport entered the active construction phase in 2011. It is located in the Amur Region in Russia’s Far East near the town of Uglegorsk on an area of 700 square kilometres. It will have a launch complex for super-heavy rockets meant for exploring near and far space. Construction work is financed under the federal space program. It will go fully operational in 2020.

Russia is determined to develop its current space sites - northern Plesetsk and Baikonur, in Kazakhstan, which it operates under a lease contract extending till 2050.

There are a total of 20 space sites around the world. Construction of new space launch sites is in progress in China, Korea, Indonesia and Brazil. The Guiana space centre is developing, too.